The River Store

Great place. They are the store front for the River. I’ve never gone wrong here. If you express a sincere interest toward the river community they welcome you without hesitation. Gigi has a wealth of knowledge and resources.
As for the price marking, I’d say that its a $$ not a $$$ place. You can get cheaper stuff elsewhere, but you are getting the right stuff here. Watch the sales, join a class, look at their used goods and your $$ comes down even further.
Then there are the freebies. A lot of social events, give-​a-​ways, and sales. The next time I’m up here, I want to get in on their rescue course.

I think it was Gigi who helped me with my purchase of a paddle. They were having an awesome sell on the Advance Technology paddles. She took the time and explained the paddle to me that I ended up purchasing.
Later that day, I used it in a roll class with Dan, and the paddle felt so great compared to my old one!
I have no regrets with this purchase, and really liked that I had a women help with my purchase.

I took a two day intro to whitewater kayaking course in the spring. The course teaches control of a river kayak (very different from a big leisure kayak), rolling, wet exits and an eskimo roll, and navigating class 1/​easy class 2 rapids. The instructors were great. The water was cold. REALLY freaking, skin-​numbing cold so the wetsuit and dry jacket they let me use was appreciated. It rained the whole time which was no big deal until it was time to dry off for the day; then it sucked and there was no good place to dry clothes and warm up. So I drove an hour home shivering, and snuggled up under my feather comforter, slept like a baby, and drove back the next morning. My fellow river runners spent the cold, wet night at one of the only campgrounds around. Mmmm, Bummer!
Hanging upside down, submerged in icy cold water was NOT so fun; one guy dropped out the first day. Going in and out of eddies flipped all of us at least once unintentionally and staying calm while waiting for help to roll back over was scary. But the instructors were great at walking us through each step and overall it was a great experience.
The River Store also taught the prep course for Eppie’s Great Race which was also very fun! The warmer water in Sacramento helped a lot.

The River Store has been a fixture in the Coloma-​Lotus area for many years and has excellent gear and boats. The employees are friendly, if not terribly experienced on the water, and they demo boats as well. The prices are on the high side, but many times Ive been happy to lay out a few extra dollars for some small items that I had forgotten, rather than having to drive all the way back to CCK in Sacramento and miss the release.